Author: Jack Bogart

FORT IRWIN, Calif. — Army data scientists designed an experimental AI-powered platform that could transform the military decision-making planning process, to compress planning timelines from days or hours to seconds and to enable rapid, adaptable decision-making on the future battlefield. As part of the U.S. Army Combat Capabilities Development Command, or DEVCOM, Army Research Laboratory, which is the Army’s sole fundamental laboratory, the Course Of Action Generative Pre-trained Transformer, or COA-GPT, is part of the U.S. Army’s largest experiment exercise at Project Convergence Capstone 6 at Fort Irwin, Calif., from July 17-29. The COA-GPT is a scientific platform designed to accelerate mission planning and provide an adaptable and decisive framework for planning, intelligence and command to solve critical human-AI integration challenges, “By fusing generative AI with hard-won military expertise and doctrine, COA-GPT provides Army leaders and warfighters, the ability to generate and compare innovative workflow options,” said Dr. Amar Marathe, DEVCOM ARL COA-GPT program manager. “We are not replacing Soldiers with AI—we are arming them with…

The TOPS releases continue to flow, much like a river – and, hey, wouldn’t you know it, the name of a new release from the Idaho-based company is called the River Rat! What a coincidence. The River Rat was designed with space saving in mind, and is a little knife that handles like a full-size one. TOPS and collaborator Julio Diez call the River Rat’s blade shape a modified sheepsfoot, and it’s easy to see the hallmarks of that profile here: the snub nose and wide profile in particular. However, whereas the standard sheepsfoot runs straight out, the Rat’s modified…

Third generation of DroneShield’s proprietary RF detection engine delivers situational awareness in complex and evolving threat environments.Sydney, Australia – 28 July 2026 – DroneShield a global leader in advanced counter-drone (CUAS) technology, today unveiled RfAI-3, the third generation of its proprietary radio frequency intelligence engine. RfAI-3 marks a significant evolution in counter-drone doctrine, prioritizing wideband detection to sense drone threats beyond known and pre-classified emitters, delivering decisive situational awareness in the complex, rapidly evolving threat environments that define modern operations. A New Detection Paradigm Industry standard RF detection systems operate on a cataloged emitter model: a drone must be cataloged in…

I heaved the fully loaded Exped Lightning 50 off my back onto the ground, right in the middle of a gem of a creekside Colorado campsite. It was packed to the absolute limit with gear and food that was quickly extruded into a neat pile beside us. Within moments, I had alpine charcuterie served, camp chairs pitched, water heating, and a diaper changing station deployed. With a new baby in tow, the demands on my day hiking pack have grown exponentially. 20 liters? Forget about it. I nabbed a sample of the freshly updated Exped Lightning 50 to pull double…

The next time you’re about to upload a video from your hiking trip, take a moment to consider the following: Is it possible I’m doing something illegal? That clearly wasn’t on the minds of a hiking couple in Banff National Park who had a risky run-in with a grizzly bear. The couple posted a 90-second video of the encounter to TikTok account twohumanstwodogs on July 21. It swiftly went viral: The couple yells and backs away from the burly bruin while their small dog barks in agitation. While many online spectators expressed sympathy for the scary situation, others noted an…

As an avid paddler, I consider a waterproof first-aid kit non-negotiable. Even when I’m heading out on dry-land missions, I want my first-aid essentials to stay bone-dry. If I had to pick one compact kit to keep in regular rotation, the Adventure Medical Kits Ultralight/Watertight .7 Medical Kit ($35) would be it. Smaller than a 32-ounce water bottle, this kit is ideal for multisport days where space is limited. I have tossed it into dry bags, running vests, and even my dog’s pack without a second thought. The .7 includes the basics I want for blisters, headaches, mild allergic reactions,…

Imagine you’re a first responder. Your patient has just broken their leg and is wet, underdressed, and nearly hypothermic. If you don’t have any clothes to change them into, you may have to offer your own, or some purchased for the occasion. And if the injury is serious enough, those nice base layers might get cut right off, never to be used again. That was the scenario that merino wool brand Minus 33 tackled head-on when it launched a program in 2017 to donate its factory seconds to a local search-and-rescue organization. The Search & Rescue (SAR) kit program repurposes…

Oregon voters will not decide this November whether hunting, fishing, and many common agricultural practices should be treated as animal cruelty. The Oregon Elections Division announced that Initiative Petition 28 failed to collect enough valid signatures to qualify for the November 3 general election ballot. The campaign needed 117,173 valid signatures. State officials determined that 104,262 of the signatures submitted were valid, leaving the measure nearly 13,000 signatures short. What Initiative Petition 28 Would Have Done Known as the People for the Elimination of Animal Cruelty Exemptions Act, or PEACE Act, the proposal would have removed several existing exemptions from…

Deep in the remote wilderness of Maine exists Redington, home to the U.S. Navy’s SERE (Survival, Evasion, Resistance and Escape) school. It is this hallowed locale from which GiantMouse’s most formidable blade, The Redington, gets its name. This week, that knife got a new edition in the GiantMouse Redington N690, which maintains its incredible versatility and robustness, but cuts the price down significantly. It is a cool knife, but I think of GiantMouse as a folder company, with a more urban vibe.  This knife is quite a departure from that. Read the whole thing at GearPatrol.com https://www.gearpatrol.com/outdoors/giantmouse-redington-n690/ Read the full…

It’s late July, early August, so it is time for the annual Light&Saber Listicle. To clarify language here is my article about the price brackets. The goal of this article is to recommend to you a knife and a light that This year represents a huge shift for two reasons. First, a lot of my favorite gear is no longer in production. Second, inflation has destroyed the market. I feel like those two things might be related. It might be that the old stuff I liked is too expensive now to make at a profit and so those things have…