The Office of the Assistant Secretary of the U.S. Air Force for Space Acquisition and Integration has awarded a $161 million Strategic Breakthrough contract to Antares, a California nuclear startup, to advance a reactor design meant to power spacecraft. The company describes it as the largest Department of War award to date focused specifically on […]

ELVO, Greece’s main military vehicle manufacturer, has shown off the first Mercedes G-Class “jeeps” modernized under a new refit program built to extend the life of the Greek Army’s aging vehicle fleet rather than replace it outright. The vehicles being upgraded are roughly 30 years old. ELVO is fitting a new engine and automatic transmission, […]

Northrop Grumman announced a series of new industrial agreements with partners in Poland and Estonia on September 10, 2026, unveiled at MSPO, Poland’s largest defense trade show, in Kielce. The announcements span air-defense software, chain guns already mounted on Polish armored vehicles, and exploratory talks over a radar aircraft, tying several existing programs together under […]

A one-way attack drone built by Northrop Grumman flew a test flight in California, guided by a navigation system that never touches GPS. Instead, it reads faint variations in Earth’s own magnetic field, picked up by quantum sensors built by SandboxAQ, a Silicon Valley company spun out of Google. The test took place at Fort […]

OpenAI launches ChatGPT for Financial Services with market data, citations and document tools for banking, research and compliance teams worldwide.

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OpenAI launches ChatGPT for Financial Services with market data, citations and document tools for banking, research and compliance teams worldwide.

The post OpenAI Launches ChatGPT for Financial Services: What Banks Should Know appeared first on TechRepublic.

BlackSky Technology said it has been named the exclusive provider of very-high-resolution optical satellites for what organizers call the world’s first AI-enabled satellite constellation, a $1 billion initiative unveiled September 9, 2026, at the first International Space Summit in Paris. The initial constellation will include 50 satellites carrying radar, optical and other sensors, built to […]

Embraer presented Uzbekistan’s first C-390 Millennium military transport aircraft on September 10, 2026, making the country the first C-390 operator in Central Asia. The Brazilian manufacturer confirmed the milestone in a social media post, without disclosing further details of the handover. Embraer had kept the Uzbek order under wraps for more than a year before […]

KNDS Mobility unveiled Celeris 8×8, a new mobility kit for heavy wheeled combat vehicles, at the MSPO defense trade show in Kielce, Poland, on September 10, 2026. The kit is not a finished vehicle. It is a complete set of engineered components, engine, transmission, axles, suspension and onboard electronics, that vehicle makers and armed forces […]

At Singer Laren, Piet Oudolf’s layered plantings create a living backdrop for contemporary sculpture

Microsoft has entered the final phase of retiring Azure SQL Data Sync, blocking new deployments in subscriptions that have never used the service. The restriction took effect on September 9, ahead of the service's shutdown on September 30, 2027. Subscriptions that already use the service can continue creating, modifying, and managing sync groups and member databases until retirement. Other subscriptions can no longer adopt it. The service uses a hub-and-spoke model, with an Azure SQL database serving as the hub and other databases joining its synchronization group. Members can be other Azure SQL databases or on-premises SQL Server databases, which require a sync agent. A conflict resolution policy determines whether the hub or member database takes precedence when changes clash. SQL Data Sync supports scenarios including hybrid environments, in which applications and databases are split between local infrastructure and Azure, as well as geographically distributed applications. Microsoft acknowledged that customers will need to choose among several possible replacements. It offered little technical explanation for the retirement, referring only to evolving "operational, security, and compliance requirements." Microsoft announced the retirement two years ago, but blocking first-time deployments gives customers another reason to begin planning their transition. Microsoft lists alternatives including Azure Data Factory, Azure Functions, read replicas, linked servers, database mirroring, availability groups, and transactional replication. However, it noted that "there is no single replacement that maps to every SQL Data Sync configuration." Existing users have just over a year to migrate before the final cutoff. Those without a migration plan will need one before the service shuts down. ®

V2X confirmed on September 8, 2026, that it has been awarded a $19 million contract by the U.S. Marine Corps to deliver Tempest counter-drone vehicles, along with the maintenance, software and training needed to keep them running. The announcement puts a public face on a deal the Pentagon had already disclosed. A contract notice dated […]

American Rheinmetall has won a $7.28 million contract to deliver 12 Mission Master SP autonomous ground vehicles and five amphibious kits to the U.S. Marine Corps, the company announced. The Defense Logistics Agency is managing the procurement, with ADS Inc. serving as prime contractor supporting the Marine Corps Warfighting Laboratory. The vehicles will be used […]

Meandering paths, clipped hedges, and layered late-season plantings reveal this historic Dutch garden a little at a time

Northrop Grumman will build a new version of its GPS-guided artillery kit with added anti-jamming technology, the company announced September 9, aimed at keeping artillery accurate even when an enemy is jamming GPS signals. The new kit, called the PGK E5, is the latest version of the M1156 Precision Guidance Kit, a fuze-sized device the […]

Meta launches Muse in the US, a personal AI agent that can book travel, shop, send emails, and run tasks, with security controls and paid plans.

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British radar maker Blighter is pushing for more sales in Central and Eastern Europe, showcasing its border and low-altitude air surveillance radars this week at the MSPO defense exhibition in Kielce, Poland. The company builds ground-based radars that use electronic scanning array antennas rather than the mechanically rotating dishes found on older radar systems, letting […]

AEVEX Corp. has won $20.5 million in new U.S. government contracts to build and develop one-way attack drones, the company announced September 9. AEVEX did not name the government agency behind the awards or specify which of its drone models are covered. The work includes delivering the aircraft themselves along with engineering, development and integration […]

Elbit Systems has introduced FUSE, a new business line bringing together the Israeli defense contractor’s autonomous drone and ground vehicle systems under one portfolio, the company announced September 9 in Rosh HaAyin, Israel. FUSE centers on software called Dominion-X, which lets a single operator control multiple autonomous aircraft and ground vehicles at once, a setup […]

Meta launches Muse in the US, a personal AI agent that can book travel, shop, send emails, and run tasks, with security controls and paid plans.

The post Meta Launches Muse AI Agent to Run Errands, Book Travel, and Shop appeared first on TechRepublic.