The Army wants contractors that can manufacture up to 10 barrels per month within three years, according to the Sources Sought notice. The deadline is Nov. 23.

Companies were asked to provide details of their ability — or their subcontractor’s capacity — to make barrels, including whether they could add “chrome bore coatings on a steel tube up to 30 [feet] long and up to 7,500 pounds in weight,” the notice said. They should also provide the maximum length and weight of tube that they could coat.

Also desired are details on a company’s boring, milling and rifling capabilities, as well as details on raw materials, such as “steel preform production, forging, guide bore, and heat treatment.”

The notice asks contractors to estimate their capacity to manufacture 155mm barrels within 18 months, and up to 10 barrels per month within 36 months. Companies should also offer a cost estimate for an “initial production quantity of 40 cannon tubes (broken down by caliber or indicating pricing for a combined/flexible mix),” the Army said.

Currently, the Army makes large-caliber barrels for howitzers and tanks only at the aging Watervliet Arsenal in New York.

While America and Europe have been focused on expanding production of howitzer ammunition to meet demand in the Ukraine war and replenish domestic stockpiles, another problem is a lack of manufacturing capacity to replace worn-out cannon barrels.

A 2024 Pentagon budget document stated that Ukraine’s heavy use of M777 howitzers created a demand for more than 30 M776 tubes per month, according to The War Zone. The document admitted that Watervliet could not keep up with demand, and asked for emergency funding to be transferred to enable a second manufacturer of barrels.

The new notice doesn’t mention how many additional barrel manufacturers are needed. However, the Army is exploring whether to replace the M777 with a weapon based on Korea’s popular K9 howitzer.

Freed from Cold War-era constraints, the U.S. Army has been upgrading its existing missiles and rocket artillery and developing new, longer-range systems. Those investments are largely in response to the growing size and sophistication of China’s missile arsenal, which the U.S. military worries could deny its forces access to the Western Pacific during a conflict. The intensification of training with the Philippines and Japan reflects a shared concern about China’s military capabilities.

The emphasis on long-range fires in the first island chain is visible in the extended deployments and first-of-their-kind drills involving those weapons, especially the High Mobility Artillery Rocket System. HIMARS can conduct land-attack and maritime-strike missions using guided rockets with ranges of a few dozen miles or ballistic missiles with ranges of a few hundred miles.

U.S. Army HIMARS operated in Japan for the first time in 2021 during an exercise in Hokkaido and were first deployed to Japan’s Southwest Islands, which separate the East China Sea from the wider Pacific, in 2022 for an exercise on an island northeast of Okinawa. Since then, HIMARS has been a common feature of U.S. exercises with Japan, most recently this year’s Keen Sword, for which Army HIMARS were sent to a Japanese island that is only 150 miles east of Taiwan.

The Army’s HIMARS has a longer history in the Philippines, but in recent years, U.S. and Filipino troops have employed it in new roles, such as anti-ship strikes, and in new parts of the country. Exercises in 2024 and 2025 saw HIMARS deployed to Palawan, facing the South China Sea, and to the northern coast of Luzon, facing Taiwan.

This year’s edition of Balikatan, the two countries’ largest annual exercise, showed their ability to move HIMARS around the country by land, sea and air: In April, U.S. soldiers and airmen transported a HIMARS to Itbayat, the Philippines’ northernmost municipality and only 100 miles from Taiwan, for a dry-fire exercise. A few weeks later, an Army watercraft transported a HIMARS launcher to Balabac Island, south of Palawan, for the first time for a live-fire exercise, which showed its ability “to protect shipping going into the Sulu and Celebes Sea,” the Army said.

The ability to move forces into and across the first island chain demonstrates alliance integration and sends a message to rivals, according to Gen. Ronald Clark, commander of U.S. Army Pacific. “It’s really a joint success story,” Clark said at the Association of the U.S. Army’s annual conference in Washington, D.C. this month.

Clark pointed to a recent exercise for which soldiers loaded HIMARS launchers on aircraft at a base in Washington state and flew them to the Philippines, all of which was visible to adversaries. “We then join munitions from Korea that were drawn out of stocks there to the Philippines, where our adversary could see it, and then we conduct a live-fire on the backend of a HIMARS rapid-infiltration operation,” Clark added. “Being able to do that, it, one, takes a lot of skill. Second, it takes a tremendous amount of partnership with, in this case, allies to assist us.”

Clark said improving capabilities in increasingly complex exercises affects adversaries’ thinking. “To be able to conduct operational maneuver and have tremendous tactical effects that then have a strategic effect on our adversary is exactly what we were looking to gain, because what that does is it gives them pause.”

Over the past two years, the U.S. Army has introduced its Mid-Range Capability, a new ground-based missile system known as Typhon, to its training in the first island chain. Typhon can fire SM-6 missiles at air and maritime targets a few hundred miles away and Tomahawk missiles at land targets up to 1,000 miles away, bringing swathes of China and Russia into range from the Philippines and Japan.

Typhon’s first overseas deployment was in 2024 in the Philippines. It has remained there since then, and in May this year, it was test-fired for the first time, striking a target in central Luzon from nearly 400 miles away. The Army sent a Typhon to Japan for the first time in August 2025 for an exercise the following month, but the weapon lingered until November that year. It returned to Japan this summer, deploying to the southernmost of Japan’s main islands for exercises in June and September and moving to a base on Okinawa for storage in October. U.S. officials told Tokyo the deployment isn’t meant to be permanent, but it has no official end date.

The Typhon was sent to the Philippines at Manila’s request and “has maintained forward presence for now over 30 consecutive months,” Maj. Gen. Bernard Harrington said in a presentation at the AUSA conference. Harrington commands the recently established 7th Infantry Division/Multi-Domain Command-Pacific, which combines the 7th Infantry Division’s ground-maneuver elements with the long-range fires and non-kinetic effects of the 1st Multi-Domain Task Force.

Typhon’s presence in the Philippines has allowed for extended in-theater training, giving soldiers more insight into issues like “How do we sustain in the environment? How do you protect those types of systems in the environment? How do you connect sensor to shooter?” Harrington said in his presentation. “To be able to do that persistently forward and persistently with our ally in the Philippines and our partners is incredibly important for us.”

While the presence of HIMARS and Typhon in new places has been widely publicized, those deployments also create opportunities for U.S. troops to do less visible work to improve communications links and enhance their command-and-control networks, ensuring that friendly forces have a common operating picture of the battlefield and can use their weapons effectively in combat.

China has watched these developments warily. Beijing regularly criticizes U.S. exercises with Japan and the Philippines as provocative and destabilizing, and it has singled out Typhon deployments for vitriol. But experts cited by Chinese state media also say China has an advantage against weapons like HIMARS when they are deployed on islands near Taiwan because the islands’ small size and terrain will hinder mobility and concealment and their remoteness will make it easier to spot and block resupply efforts.

The logistical challenge is real. U.S. war games also emphasize the difficulty of resupplying small islands near Taiwan — but Harrington said it underscores the need for US forces to disperse and adopt lower-cost, lower-signature weapons alongside expensive missiles.

“This maximizes options for the Joint Force while also enhancing the protection and survivability of our soldiers,” Harrington told Defense News at AUSA. “For example, the employment of systems such as long-range one-way-attack drones, unmanned surface vessels, and long-range launched effects may enable our division to achieve a desired effect for the Joint Force while also preserving our larger, more exquisite systems until needed for a specific purpose.”

The Department of Defence launched an industry solicitation for the project, christened Project Land 6504, on Oct. 13. The potential deal has already attracted interest globally, with vendors from Europe, Israel, South Korea, Turkey and the United States eying the requirement Down Under.

A primary motivation for filling the gaping hole in Australian defenses is China’s rising military prowess. Alarming many, the People’s Liberation Army sent a naval task group to circumnavigate Australia in early 2025, and then China fired an intercontinental ballistic missile into the South Pacific in July this year.

With China possessing the world’s most diverse missile arsenal, Australia knows it needs better defenses. Land 6504 is therefore looking for a defensive system capable of shooting down ballistic missiles in their terminal phase of flight, as well as address subsonic air-breathing threats.

The National Defence Strategy 2026 prioritized missile defense, calling for “accelerated introduction of medium-range, ground-based, active missile defense through investment in missile launchers and munitions and integrating them with the Australian Defence Force’s command-and-control systems.”

This envisioned off-the-shelf system is expected to be a “proven capability,” contributing to a national, integrated system, the solicitation reads.

Money is a perennial problem, however, as AUKUS nuclear-powered submarines soak up available defense funds.

But perhaps the greatest risk is the lightning speed at which this Australian project is moving. Final selection of the vendor is to occur by the end of 2027. The solution is to perform live-firing in Exercise Talisman Saber in mid-2029, and an initial operational capability achieved in the early 2030s.

Importantly, the expeditionary air-defense system must integrate with radars from CEA Technologies and the Joint Air Battle Management System being developed by Lockheed Martin Australia.

Because of the time constraints, Canberra is pursuing direct commercial sale and U.S. Foreign Military Sales (FMS) avenues simultaneously.

The timing of the tender may boost the chances of non-American missile suppliers, as the U.S. grapples with depleted magazines after expending large amounts of missiles in its conflict with Iran.

A recent Congressional Research Service report warned, “Finite U.S. industrial base capacity introduces trade-offs between filling FMS orders and replenishing U.S. stockpiles. FMS delivery delays may result in cancellations, potentially affecting U.S. and partner interoperability and integration.”

Other options are available, however. For example, Australia could add AMRAAM-ER extended-range missiles to its existing NASAMS.

John Fry, managing director of Kongsberg Australia, told Defense News: “We’re definitely interested in that program. I think the great thing with the NASAMS architecture is Kongsberg and Raytheon are evolving that into full-spectrum air defense.”

Elsewhere, Lockheed Martin Australia fired an SM-2 missile from a trailer launcher in June, utilizing the Aegis combat system and a CEA radar. This demonstrated how a hybrid air defense system can make use of components already available in Australia.

The AN/TPS-80 Ground/Air Task Oriented Radar, or G/ATOR, is the Marine Corps’ solution for defending against a broad range of airborne threats, particularly in the Pacific littorals.

It replaces five older radar systems, and last year received an extended-range software upgrade that boosted its capability and advanced its ability to differentiate friends or foes in the air.

In a call with reporters Oct. 7, Northrop Director of Mission Systems Paul Weaver said the company had delivered 43 of the 60 G/ATOR systems the Marine Corps has ordered, of which five are designated for the Air Force and one for Navy test and evaluation.

“Demand for the system in theater right now is high, and it’s based on that performance,” Weaver said. “We’ve been making modifications to the system based on customer input for the last four or five years. We’ve made some hardware modifications that extended its range, and we’re constantly making software improvements to adapt to the specific threat environment, whether that be [unmanned aerial systems], from the smallest to the largest, and other potential threats that they face.”

Weaver said the company was “actively engaged at the headquarters level” with the Marine Corps and the Air Force about how best to employ G/ATOR and had recently begun engagements with the Army as well. While he deferred on saying whether the Army had interest in acquiring the radar system, he said its capabilities had broad appeal across the services.

“When you put a number of these systems in the field, operating in a complementary way, you can stay in constant movement and complicate the adversary’s target cycle,” Weaver said. “That is of interest to every service that’s currently in conflict right now. So, to the level that we’re engaged with the Army and the Air Force, it all comes back to its current performance and the agility that this advanced platform potentially offers.”

At 9,000 pounds, G/ATOR is small and light enough to be transported by C-130 Hercules or MV-22 Osprey aircraft. It can be set up and emplaced by a four-person crew in under ten minutes, and can flex in power settings from 60 kilowatts for medium-range targets to 75 kilowatts for longer-range kills. Initial fielding to the Marine Corps began in 2018, and service leaders have suggested more recently that they might soon expand their acquisition plan.

“We learned that it’s much more capable than we thought,” Brig. Gen. Christopher Haar, now commander of the 3rd Marine Logistics Group, told Military Times last December. “And now there’s a demand for us to get that in more units, and to potentially increase the number of those systems that we buy.”

The War Zone reported last month that the Corps’ Pacific-based 31st Marine Expeditionary Unit had employed the service’s Expeditionary Advanced Base Operations (EABO) concept for the first time in combat during operations in support of the Operation Epic Fury conflict with Iran. It’s not clear if the G/ATOR system was part of that concept employment. But Weaver did suggest that the current conflict is highlighting its strengths.

With its lightweight footprint and capable 360-degree active electronically scanned array (AESA) radar, the system, he said, can be flown into an austere location to establish an expeditionary air base, allowing the establishment of a surveillance perimeter while also enabling airspace control. According to the company, the system can identify launch points of hostile fires ranging from mortars to artillery and serve as a ground-based air traffic control manager. Drone warfare, Weaver said, brings out other strengths.

“It’s proving in recent conflicts and around the globe to perform exceptionally well in clutter, which makes it very helpful in identifying all classes of UASs and cruise missiles,” he said. “It’s not only providing awareness of what’s in the airspace around it at all altitudes. It provides weapons quality data and that performance, which means the warfighter can not only see it but also connect it to any available countermeasure that it has, whether that be kinetic or non-kinetic, and address it appropriately.”

New commands and force restructuring have put greater emphasis on the Western Hemisphere and Indo-Pacific, while the ongoing conflict with Iran and Ukraine’s fight against Russia have complicated the force posture in U.S. Central Command’s area of operations and what might have been a troop drawdown in Europe, respectively.

Taken together, the moves offer a snapshot of locations the Army prioritized in 2026, and where it might turn its focus next.

Western Hemisphere

In a sweeping force restructure, the Army stood up a new Western Hemisphere Command in late 2025, consolidating three major commands under a single headquarters at Fort Bragg, North Carolina. The move aligns with the 2026 National Defense Strategy, which prioritized defending the “U.S. Homeland” and the Western Hemisphere over the U.S.’s persistent goal of opposing China.

The service shuttered some of its global advisory brigades, retaining only two Security Force Assistance Brigades, or SFABs. One of the remaining SFABs is regionally aligned to U.S. Southern Command, and the Army reported that the Western Hemisphere Command would assume responsibilities previously shouldered by the Security Force Assistance Command.

U.S. Southern Command also activated Joint Task Force Western Hemisphere in August, creating a standing headquarters to coordinate regional operations with 18 partner nations and target cartels and other transnational criminal networks.

The Army also, in partnership with Panama, revived its jungle school course in the Central American country after a decades-long hiatus. Officials have said that maintaining jungle warfare skills is applicable in the Indo-Pacific region as well.

Central Command

Force posture in the Central Command area of operations — spanning the Middle East, Central and South Asia, and Northeast Africa — continues to change. In mid-April, U.S. troops shut down several American bases in Syria, handing them over to government forces and ending a 10-year presence in the country.

Last month, the U.S. formally left Iraq after more than two decades of war, spurring warnings from security experts who say the withdrawal could give Iran, its allies and the Islamic State increased freedom to operate in the country.

However, amid the U.S.’s war with Iran, the U.S. has extended an 82nd Airborne Division deployment to the region, keeping troops for a total of one year. In February, the Army announced that a brigade from the 10th Mountain Division was set to deploy to the region as well, though it did not provide a specific timeline.

Speaking broadly about the force — not just the Army — a senior U.S. official told Reuters in June that the U.S. planned to maintain its robust military presence in the region as hostilities between the U.S. and Iran persist.

Europe

In the European theater, the U.S. Army’s force posture appears to be in flux.

Shortly after the Army abruptly scrapped the planned deployment of the 2nd Armored Brigade Combat Team, 1st Cavalry Division, to Poland, the Pentagon announced in May it was deploying 5,000 troops to the country.

Defense Department spokesperson Sean Parnell called the surge a “temporary delay” of the Trump administration’s plan to reduce the number of Brigade Combat Teams assigned to Europe from four to three.

This summer, the Pentagon launched a broad review of U.S. troops, bases and force posture across Europe. The review, which is expected to take up to six months, comes after the Trump administration’s calls for European countries to take on heftier NATO defense responsibilities.

Still, the Army continues to participate in multinational training exercises in Europe, like Dynamic Front 2026 and Exercise Saber Junction.

Europe’s theater has been particularly rife with lessons about drone warfare. Maj. Gen. Christopher Norrie, the acting Commanding General of U.S. Army Europe and Africa, said in a September briefing that troops rotated through the Army’s “training support mission” in Ukraine’s capital to learn about drone units.

Indo-Pacific

Deterrence appeared to define the Indo-Pacific theater in 2026.

“In the big scheme of things, our highest duty is to deter,” Gen. Ronald Clark, commander of U.S. Army Pacific, told Military Times in an interview.

Earlier in the year, Exercise Balikatan 2026 — the largest drill of the series yet — was held in the Philippines and included troops from the Philippines, the U.S., Australia, Canada, France, Japan and New Zealand. The exercise’s focus, Clark said, had shifted over the years from counterterrorism to “large-scale combat operations.”

Though Chinese leader Xi Jinping ordered troops to seize Taiwan by 2027, the outlying island is conspicuously absent from the 2026 National Defense Strategy.

In June, the Army launched a new Indo-Pacific multi-domain command that brought together conventional forces and the Cross Domain Contact Layer, a continuous network that combines sensors, drones, precision weapons, artificial intelligence, electronic warfare and more.

According to a May 2025 executive order, the Army plans to create four such commands, including one Multi-Domain Command—Japan.

Africa

The Army has reduced some of its Africa-focused force structure, shuttering the 2nd Security Force Assistance Brigade, previously aligned with U.S. Africa Command, late last year.

The command has seen a 75% force drawdown in the last ten years, creating what Gen. Dagvin Anderson, the command’s top leader, described in testimony before Congress as “an intelligence black hole,” and said the organization was operating with “minimum necessary resources.”

The U.S. special operations task force in Somalia posted an ad for three cultural and political advisors in late May.

The Arctic

The Marine Corps announced this year that it is moving troops deeper into Alaska with an initiative — aptly called “Campaign – Alaska” — designed to build a more persistent presence in the Arctic and prepare service members for extreme cold-weather operations.

The new rotating force will train and experiment in the frigid conditions and will likely add to interservice operations and exercises with partners like the Army’s Alaska-based 11th Airborne Division.

While the Army announced no major force posture changes in Alaska or the Arctic, the Army Corps of Engineers is working to expand where troops can operate in the region.

Researchers are developing new standards for landing Black Hawks and Chinooks on frozen lakes after testing found that aircraft could land on thinner ice than previous Army doctrine allowed, possibly opening up 25% more terrain for aviation operations.

The MITR half-mask and goggle system is designed to protect wearers from dangerous chemicals and toxic substances in the atmosphere, including lead powder from gunfire, ballistics and poisonous substances like fentanyl.

Casey Galligan, Avon’s senior director for the U.S. Homeland Security and the Department of Defense, told Defense News that fentanyl and chemicals found in drug labs are now part of a wide array of hazards that special warfare operators must guard against, in addition to biological weapons and other breathing hazards.

“Precursor drug chemicals now are a huge issue that are just as dangerous as a chemical hazard,” Galligan said. “As an operator, every day you’re doing something quasi-dangerous, particularly those at the frontline doing maneuver. This is not meant to replace a full-face respirator. A split system gives you options.”

The half-mask system walks the line between an N-95 disposable mask and a heavy, full-face respirator. The goggles and half-mask can be worn linked together or separated, giving operators a lightweight option that will give them eye and breathing protection as needed without requiring them to carry heavy full-face respirator masks.

The MITR features positive pressure-sealed goggles to stop hazardous chemicals from getting in around its edges. The system features sweat drainage outlets inside the goggles and blows cool air into them from both sides, preventing lens fogging.

A former U.S. Army Green Beret, Galligan said the system provides safety against toxic materials while allowing wearers to breathe easier — literally.

“If you don’t always want to be wearing a full-face respirator, and you’re worried about different levels of threats, this is a half-pound and easy to put on. You can wear it with a head harness or with helmet attachments,” he explained.

Half-mask systems are not new, but the MITR system has evolved constantly to incorporate new evolutions in technology to reach its current capabilities.

“We’ve been going through iterations and continuing to improve it,” said Galligan, adding that the U.S. is joining Canada and another FVEY nation in purchasing the system.

Elite warfare units of U.S. Special Operations are already wearing the new half-mask and goggles in the field, he disclosed.

“We’ve fielded it to units already. Some are en route right now, being delivered,” Galligan said. “The feedback I get talking with end users is pretty amazing.”

The Defense Department’s decision to equip SOCOM operators with improved breathing equipment follows a November 2025 report, called the SOF Cancer Study, which revealed that SOF operators face an 18% higher risk of cancer than non-SOF personnel due to hazardous materials in their environments that they are exposed to constantly in the line of duty.

Shifting to a half-mask system could mark the dawn of a new era in how military service members approach facial protection overall.

“When you see the tip of the spear using it, it’s going to make it a lot more acceptable,” Galligan said.

“I could not be prouder of the men and women that stand before us today and those that came before us to inactivate the unit,” Col. Robert Cusick, the group’s commanding officer, said. “8th PSYOP Group introduced new concepts that will remain for years to come.”

8th POG, nicknamed the “Phantom Knights,” was formally activated on Nov. 16, 2013, after operating provisionally for two years. It was one of four Army PSYOP groups, including the active-duty 4th Psychological Operations Group (Airborne) and the Army Reserve’s 2nd and 7th Psychological Operations Groups.

The term “inactivation” signifies that the group is being decommissioned for an indeterminate period during some form of restructuring and reorganization — not necessarily that it is being deactivated or dissolved.

The 8th POG included the 3rd PSYOP Battalion (Airborne) and the 9th PSYOP Battalion (Airborne). The 3rd POB influences print, radio and broadcast information operations around the world, while the 9th POB is typically involved in operations like dropping leaflets and cultivating local communities where Special Forces may be operating.

The Information Warfare Center, organized in 2020, was also under the aegis of the 8th PG. The IWC combines intelligence operations and information warfare specifically for Army Special Forces.

The inactivation comes just two months after the Army activated Delta Company, 7th Psychological Operations Battalion. The 7th was previously assigned to the 4th Psychological Operations Group (Airborne) but is now under the 3rd Special Forces Group (Airborne). That group is focused on psychological operations primarily under U.S. Africa Command’s purview.

Some military officials and analysts have argued that the U.S. needs to overhaul its approach to psychological operations and information warfare groups — hence the Delta Company activation and the retirement of the 8th POG.

“What is most concerning is not simply that adversaries invest in information warfare, but that they can often employ it faster and more coherently than we can respond,” Maj. Ryan Walters, an active-duty U.S. Army Psychological Operations officer, wrote in Small Wars Journal in January. “In practice, adversaries win by compressing the time between sensing, shaping, and exploiting, while U.S. forces remain constrained by approval latency, fragmented execution, and inconsistent assessment. The result is a temporal mismatch in which effects arrive after decisions are already made.”

As Washington shifts its attention toward the Western Hemisphere, a reinvigorated jungle school is just one part of the evolving U.S. military presence in Panama.

More than 20 years after the U.S. turned over its bases to the Central American country, the partnership offers a glimpse of what the Pentagon’s renewed focus on its own hemisphere could mean on the ground.

“The Western Hemisphere is now the priority hemisphere,” Col. Jacob White, deputy commander of Joint Security Cooperation Group-Panama (JSCG-P), said in an interview from the unit’s Panamanian headquarters. “We want to move faster and be more present down in this hemisphere.”

Decades after the U.S. launched a deeply polarizing invasion to topple Panamanian dictator Manuel Noriega, the disparate missions are part of the U.S.’s increasingly prioritized relationship with the country that hosts the only land bridge connecting the two American continents and the only waterway connecting the Atlantic and Pacific.

The Trump administration, and thus the Pentagon, has elevated “defense of the U.S. Homeland” to the highest national security priority, downgrading China — which previously took the top spot — as a threat.

In April 2025, the U.S. and Panama announced an agreement to counter Chinese influence in the region and secure the Panama Canal, laying the foundation for other joint activities.

According to Henry Ziemer, a fellow with the Americas Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, Panama never stopped being important to the U.S. military.

It has the strategically important Panama Canal and Darién Gap, and the country sits at the intersection of some of the Trump administration’s major priorities: canal security, migration and drug trafficking.

Over the last year, Ziemer said, Panama’s importance has increased “as we’ve seen supply chain disruptions at other critical waterways like the Strait of Hormuz.”

Roughly 5% to 6% of global trade passes through the waterway, with approximately 70% of that traffic passing to or from the United States.

“For many subsequent administrations and decades, I think the United States took [its] eye off this neighborhood, off the Western Hemisphere,” said Kevin Marino Cabrera, the U.S. Ambassador to Panama, emphasizing that developments in the region have direct impacts for the U.S.

“You can’t talk about migration without talking about Panama,” he said, referring to the Darién Gap, which at its peak saw more than half a million migrant crossings per year. Panamanian service members also report drug smuggling through the narrow strip of land.

From the U.S.’s perspective, the “border begins in Panama,” Ziemer said, adding “it’s a lot easier to secure the Isthmus of Panama than it is to secure the whole Southwest land border, right?”

Cabrera said the partnership was mutually beneficial, though, as Panama also deals with cartels, drug trafficking and migration issues — though differently than the U.S.

“Our plan is to defeat the cartels, to maintain the Darién closed, so that we can secure the U.S. Southern border and keep our communities safe,” he said, adding, “we’re working together with Panama because they have many of the same goals.”

Though the gritty terrain of jungle school makes it a highlight of the partnership, the U.S. military’s inroads in Panama extend well beyond the boundaries of Aeronaval Base Cristóbal Colón, where course is housed.

Typically a country may host a U.S. Army Civil Affairs team or two — the Army’s special operations forces contingent that connects military forces with civilian populations — but Panama is home to an entire U.S. Civil Affairs company, White said, that works in virtually every district.

Those teams, he said, identify gaps in civilian infrastructure, such as dilapidated schools or unsafe bridges. The U.S. has military salvage dive teams operating around the canal and cross-training with Panamanian forces. Engineer soldiers rotate through the country, building out structures for jungle students.

Military doctors work alongside Panamanian medical professionals to assist local populations, performing colonoscopies and cataract surgeries. Dentists and optometrists — even veterinarians — rotate through rural parts of the country.

White said one of the lessons the U.S. learned during its decades-long wars in Iraq and Afghanistan was that the military cannot quickly create trust.

“In a crisis, you simply can’t surge trust,” he said. “And so, being here — present — doing things on the regular with SENAFRONT and SENAN, with the government of Panama — and with their permission to do it — it helps build that trust.” Though Panama does not have a standing Army, SENAFRONT and SENAN are two branches of the Panamanian Public Forces.

On a tactical level, Panamanian instructors at the jungle school say the course, which includes Panamanian and U.S. soldiers, makes them feel that, in an emergency, U.S. soldiers would at least grasp how challenging it is to operate in a jungle environment.

With terrain different from the U.S.’s Hawaii jungle course, Panama’s environment replicates other jungle biomes where the U.S. may find itself in conflict. The Western Hemisphere, White said, abounds with jungle landscape.

But as the U.S. hones its focus on Central and South America, expanded U.S. activity inevitably raises questions about sovereignty. Decrepit military quarters line roads in and out of Aeronaval Base Cristóbal Colón, which the U.S. called Fort Sherman when it occupied it. Most sit abandoned, used only as shady hideaways for jungle instructors between missions.

Officials have been adamant that the future does not hold permanent military basing for U.S. troops. White said the U.S. contingent works to uphold the Neutrality Treaty of 1977 — which guarantees the Panama Canal remains neutral and open for ships of all nations to transit peacefully. To do that, he said, the U.S. military is operating “by, with and through the Panamanians.”

Sydney-based Breaker Industries, founded three years ago, is working with Rheinmetall Defence Australia to perfect the Avalon human-machine interface that will make a Boxer commander’s duties less onerous in the heat of combat.

The two firms signed a teaming agreement on Oct. 6, the opening day of the Land Forces 2026 exhibition in Perth. Work will now continue for twelve months to mature the Avalon system for the Boxer, including trials slated for mid-2027.

Michael Irwin, co-founder of Breaker, demonstrated to Defense News how simple voice commands – using the same type of language for directing soldiers – can control drones and get them to perform various tasks.

With uncrewed systems proliferating on battlefields, Irwin said, “The goal is to allow an armored vehicle crew to easily work with teams of those autonomous systems like they were working with another crew member.”

Indeed, he described the software stack as simply a “digital crew member.” Instead of having several extra soldiers dedicated to drone operation taking up space in the rear of the Boxer, this software helps the commander marshal all the assets in the proverbial toolbox.

The Australian Army is acquiring 211 Boxers, with production currently underway at Rheinmetall’s facility near Brisbane. These vehicles are used by cavalry units, so the smooth integration of drones could help enhance the soldiers’ ability to see around the next corner or over the next hill.

Rheinmetall described the software as enabling a “step change in armored vehicle operations capability.”

This system was demonstrated within six months of the project being launched. That demonstration involved a soldier with less than 30 minutes of training controlling a swarm of drones through the Boxer’s standard headset and microphone. They did so while performing normal crew commander functions.

Breaker chose the Boxer as the launch platform because of its digitized backbone, and the Australian Army is “very keen to see it developed,” according to company representatives.

Irwin believes the system is applicable to other vehicles in the Australian Army too, including Hanwha’s AS21 Redback infantry fighting vehicle, due to enter service soon.

Nathan Poyner, managing director of Rheinmetall Defence Australia, said there is “most definitely” an opportunity to add this Avalon system to other Boxer users in Europe.

Irwin believes one day a Boxer or other armored vehicle itself could be controlled by voice. For example, the turret could be asked to keep watch on a particular arc.

“It’s technically feasible, but there’s a whole lot of cultural barriers to get through” before this level of autonomy can happen, Irwin said.

Notably, Rheinmetall Australia is manufacturing Boxers fitted with a Lance turret and 30 mm cannon for the German Army. The company won a contract to deliver these heavy weapon carriers to Germany, with the Bundeswehr following the same configuration selected by the Australian Army.

Australia received the first 25 Boxer Block 1 vehicles from Rheinmetall Germany, but the remaining Block 2 vehicles were designed and are being manufactured in Australia.

There are six unique Boxer variants destined to join the Australian Army, and Poyner said five have completed their development so far.

He added that more than 50% of the Boxer’s content is manufactured in Australia, an indication of the depth of the supply chain that Rheinmetall has achieved Down Under.

Poyner added that he is in talks with the Australian military about additional variants of the Boxer, with a counter-drone and air-defense variant armed with a Skyranger 30 turret, made by Rheinmetall’s Switzerland offshoot, considered the most suitable.

Speaking at the Association of the United Army’s annual meeting here, U.S. Army Combat Capabilities Development Command (DEVCOM) C5ISR Center Director Beth Ferry said this kind of sensing tech had been the subject of recent “innovation sprints” within the center.

“As we categorize the threat in the [counter-unmanned aerial systems] space, in the drone space, and we understand all of the different platforms, they all have different acoustic signatures,” Ferry said. “And so being able to do some [work] on the soldier-based, very lightweight sensing technology that will pick up, hey, you know, there’s a drone following you … that’s a very early innovation project.”

Ferry said such a sensor might integrate with software to provide identification, which would then allow the soldier or unit to take action.

The work comes after a fear soldiers are expressing over developing a level of comfort in a battlespace where they might be unknowingly observed or targeted at any time, said Jami Davis, assistant director for Soldier and Platform Mission Equipment.

“I think one of the overarching things we’ve heard from our user community this year is very basic things,” Davis said. “Their priority is the soldier knowing he’s being observed by a UAS, right? Like it’s very basic things that we can provide to help kind of even give our soldiers situational awareness.”

Being able to provide that awareness without giving the soldier another thing to carry has been a priority,” Davis added.

“Our technology is always pushing for … lighter, smaller, more integrated to reduce the soldier load and improve the capability,” she said. “So definitely, you know there are industry solutions out there. Our objective really is just to try and make those better, smaller, lighter, more integrated, so that a tactical soldier doesn’t have to carry more unique, threat-unique equipment.”

Multiple defense contractors have offered variants of drone-sensing solutions that integrate with other gear, like radios, or stand alone as a wearable device that detects through RF or acoustic detection.

Earlier this year, Stars and Stripes reported that an Army sergeant in Germany had also improvised his own RF-based personal drone-sensing device that could fit in a pocket or a pouch and be assembled in an hour for about $120.

Ferry said she couldn’t yet talk about the form factor of the device the C5ISR center started developing or the way forward for the effort.

“It’s still things that we’re doing in the lab that we see as a way for us to provide a low [size, weight and power] solution for a known threat, but not something that we’ve tested yet,” she said. “You know, we work on the large technology spectrum, things that are very early to things that are closer to the field, and that one in particular is very early.”